In Cleveland, hope dies last

England, France book last Euro 2012 spots

England and France are through to the quarterfinals of Euro 2012, having booked their tickets on Tuesday in the final round of group play.

France moves on to face Spain on Saturday despite seeing their 23-game unbeaten streak go up in smoke against Sweden.

“You have to be optimistic to think that we can beat Spain, but it’s hard right now to imagine that we can. We have to do better on Saturday,” manager Laurent Blanc told ESPN. “We wanted to finish top of the group but couldn’t manage it, so we have to deal with that.”

Meanwhile, England advances thanks to a goal from Wayne Rooney, seeing his first action of the tournament after serving a two-game suspension. Rooney headed in a cross from Steven Gerrard for the games only goal.

Of course, everyone will be talking about Marko Devic’s non-goal for Ukraine. Devic popped a shot over England goal keeper Joe Hart’s and as the ball was falling into the goal – clearly over the line – defender John Terry kicked the ball out.

It was certainly a goal but Devic was most likely offside, which the refs also missed, so these things even out.

England will take on Italy on Sunday.

With group play over, the quarter finals are set. On Thursday, the Czech Republic take on Portugal. Then, on Friday, Germany takes on Greece.

And we nailed seven of the eight teams to advance, missing only on the Netherlands.